LA MIRADA – While the La Mirada High School boys basketball team is known for its powerful inside game, the Matadores took advantage of their final nonleague contest Monday evening to showcase their deep shooting.

While several key Matadores fueled La Mirada’s third quarter, perhaps no one was more pivotal, and more unlikely to play such a huge role, than sophomore Roger Hamel.

The guard, who saw his first minutes in the third quarter, was three for four from behind the arc in the quarter, while scoring all of his nine points.

La Mirada, which twice had leads of 11 points in the third, had its advantage trimmed down to nine when Cathedral’s Frank Etevati connected on two free throws with 2:04 left in the quarter.

That’s when Hamel calmly slipped behind the Phantoms defense and parked himself on the far left corner of the arc.

He then drained his first triple, directly in front of the fired up Matadores bench.

La Mirada’s 12-point lead was cut down to 10, however, when Cathedral (5-10) responded with an Aaron Almaro two-footer with 1:44 remaining in the third.

Like clockwork, Hamel again quickly and stealthily crept back to his spot where teammate Ryan Kelly again hit him. As expected, Hamel drained another 3 while putting La Mirada up by its largest margin, 50-37, with 1:34 left.

The Matadores eventually extended their third-quarter advantage to 17 points on a Derrick Williams inside layup with 23 seconds left.

Even though Cathedral answered the Williams deuce with a three-point play on its next possession with 15 seconds left, La Mirada was not finished.

Again, as the Cathedral defense pressured Williams and Kelly, Hamel ran over to his spot.

Kelly passed out to the sophomore, who converted his final 3-pointer with 10 seconds left as La Mirada took a 58-41 lead into the fourth.

Overall, five different Matadores combined to hit nine 3-pointers for the contest.

The 6-foot-7 Williams connected on three 3-pointers while scoring 22 points and adding seven rebounds.

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